The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Continuing advances in semiconductor manufacturing processes have resulted in semiconductor devices with finer features and/or higher degrees of integration. Functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while feature size (i.e., the smallest component that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This scaling-down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs.
In the integrated circuit (IC) industry, the resistive random access memory (RRAM) device represents an emerging technology for next generation non-volatile memory devices. The RRAM device uses a dielectric material, which although is normally insulating, can be made to conduct through a filament or conduction path formed after application of a specific voltage. Once the filament is formed, it may be set (i.e., re-formed, resulting in a lower resistance across the RRAM device) or reset (i.e., broken, resulting in a high resistance across the RRAM device) by appropriately applied voltages. The low and high resistance states can be utilized to indicate a digital signal of “1” or “0” depending upon the resistance state, and thereby provide a non-volatile memory cell that can store a bit.
However, since feature sizes continue to decrease, fabrication processes continue to become more difficult to perform. Therefore, it is a challenge to form a reliable semiconductor device structure including the RRAM device.